We had a delightful note from Gretchen J. Marks of Coinstar, letting us know what one of the companies featured in MarketBusters has been up to. Here it is:
Rita and Ian,
Thank you for including Coinstar in your book and considering it an example of “reconstructing the consumption chain”. We are proud of the change we have brought by introducing convenient self service coin counting.You might be interested to learn that we have just introduced a new “consumption chain” changing service at our machines– the ability for consumers to take coin or bills and turn it into online shopping at Amazon.com, or a gift card from other major retailers. Until now, the only way to shop online was with a credit card or prepaid cash card. Our new service lets those who choose to transact in cash have the same fun as those who use plastic. And the best part, it is free to consumers, (there’s no coin counting fee). We hope that this new program will be the next revolution in coin counting